Lesson 5-1 The First lesson - Do you like green? How about green pants?...

Well, to tell the truth, a few of my classes have
not yet finished all their presentations from the last lesson in Unit 4. I had mentioned in my previous post that running these presentations in rows or by student numbers "shusekibango" would be a lot faster. Some classes were run by having the students choosing the next student number so as to push the shy students to speak-up since most of them knew each others numbers anyway. Peer pressure being used in a positive way since the students had good fun pushing their friends to "buck up" and speak.

So, just to not let any students be left out, we continued those presentations left over from last week. We had practiced the criteria together as a warm-up and and to allow those students a review of their presentations. This may ease their nervousness somewhat since most students are not comfortable speaking in front of the class. As we finished, we consolidated by talking about their performance regarding, speed, rhythm, eye-contact, and voice level.

It was also mentioned by an HRT that since Japan has a new Prime Minister. If anyone had seen his first speech did they notice his performance? It was actually very good. He kept eye-contact at all times, and spoke clearly and efficiently. All the good attributes for a presentation.

After the students had finished, we continued on to Lesson 5 with a quick intro that we will be studying clothes, colors, and "like."

To get the ball rolling and to get the students into the mood about colors, clothes and "like" we played a little review and warm-up game with game-cards and flashcards after practicing the color names. It went a little like this:

Review:

1. Practice the color names. (Repeating)
2. Practice with A. "Do you like...blue ..?"
and the answers B. "Yes, I do./No, I don't."
3. Students play the role of A and the HRT play the role of B.
4. Tell the students and HRT the criteria is NOT if you like the colors in general,
(because you might an HRT who will say yes, to all the color questions)
but if you like the colors for the clothes you wear. Make sure they understand.
5. Next, have the students ask the teacher the questions, and for example when they get to "Do you like green?" and the HRT says "Yes, I do." Quickly, butt in and say "How about green pants?" You'll get a few laughs out of the kids and the HRT.
But the HRT should still answer. The kids will soon see the contrast and also get and understanding of the context between clothes, colors, and what combinations a person would like or not.
6. Building it up could include questions from the kids like "How about green shorts?" and also having the HRT give answers like "I like green shorts but I don't like green pants" or whatever suits your type of class.

Game: "Pile it up!"
1. Show the color game cards and you will need about 15 card or so for each group.
(I prefer playing games in lunch groups so I usually prepare everything in 8 sets. If you are pressed for time, use a cutting board instead of scissors and use colored origami paper, two sheets each in about 12 colors. Cut into 4 equal parts and distribute evenly. That should leave you with 8 sets and 12 colors. If you don't have time to distribute the colors evenly, let the "hancho-san's" (group-leaders) come up to the front and pick out 12 random colors then go back to their desks.
2. Explain that the colors should be left on the group's middle table and not to touch them until the game starts.
3. Explain that when the game starts, each student will take a card from the top of the pile and and do an interview with another student from another group (never from your same group).
4. Demonstrate the interview: A. Do you like....? B. Yes, I do./No, I don't.
5. Tell the students both players must play A and B at least once each. Then they can do janken. The winner gets the loser's card, but cannot keep them. He or she must go back to their "pile" of cards and put the two cards on the bottom of the pile.
Then, the student can take one card from the top and play again with a new partner. Losers, too, must get another card from their own group's "pile" so they can play again.
(This keeps the game running endlessly and it will be very rare for a group to run out of cards. The cooperation factor will be quite strong as well since students must share their "winnings." It does however get very dramatic when a group's pile goes down to 2-4 cards. So, as an HRT or ALT you should keep a few cards in your pockets and hang around those tables and let the kids go thru the interview and janken process with you (even if they don't have a card) until they beat you at janken. If the student loses, just tell them to try again.
6. Start and Stop the game when you are ready. I usually just yell out in my biggest voice,"TIME UP!" and have the kids count their cards and give the winning group a round of applause.
If you see any close, or very low scores tell your HRT, "Wow, that's a geki-teki finish!" That means "dramatic" but its hardly used these days so your HRT will either be surprised or impressed. Some students know it so they'll be wondering who taught you that.

All in all, we spent about 10-12 minutes on that game. This game can be expanded into many other themes too so keep your notes handy. Don't forget to tell your students they can upgrade the questions to "Do you like "blue" pants?" etc... if they are up to it. But be careful if they ask you "Do you like pink pantsu?" because that means...well you should know by now.

The teacher's book does mention to introduce the Lesson with a few intro questions. But to keep things short and timely we just asked the kids about the number of people in the lobby and to try the audio quiz to see if they would be able to listen to three conversations and discern which pairs are talking by the hints given in their conversations. It was mentioned that a lot of language in it had already been studied.

Plus we did not move back the desks from their group formations and told the kids they could take the quiz in this way so they could have some time to discuss with each other about the hints they heard on the CD per conversation.

We finished right after the quiz and consolidated on the hints they heard. As for homework, we will have the kids prepare their game cards and color them in like the cards on page 34. They'll probably get that done the day before next lesson after the holidays.

In my other classes that have already finished all their presentations we started like this...

(Actually, I'll have to post that info next week after the Silver Holidays...so...have fun
and take it easy!)

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Eigo Note Book 1 Unit 5 Lesson 2 is now ready...